The 2GB radio veteran fired up once more on Thursday morning, taking aim at the New Zealand Prime Minister for her criticisms of Australia on climate change.

Ardern, Morrison and other regional leaders are at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu, where climate action is high on the agenda, and Australia is being urged to take greater action on emissions reduction.

Ardern and Morrison meet in Tuvalu. Photo: AAP

Ardern and Morrison have been on frosty terms at the forum, with the NZ PM saying Australia "has to answer to the Pacific”.

“Like our Pacific Island neighbours, we will continue that international call, we will continue to say that New Zealand will do our bit and we have an expectation that everyone else will as well," she said, in a barely-veiled swipe at Australia.

Another criticism of Australia could be elicited in a tweet from Fijian PM Frank Bainimarama, who said New Zealand was a good "ally".

But Jones took aim at Ardern specifically, calling her a "clown" and a "joke" on his top-rating radio show on Wednesday.

“Here she is preaching on global warming and saying that we’ve got to do something about climate change,” Jones said.

"I just wonder whether Scott Morrison is going to be fully briefed to shove a sock down her throat."

Jones was swiftly criticised by many women's rights and anti-violence groups, as well as the Fijian PM himself.

"Easy to tell someone to shove a sock down a throat when you’re sitting in the comfort of a studio. The people of the Pacific, forced to abandon their homes due to climate change, don’t have that luxury," he wrote in a tweet, linking to a news article about Jones' comments

The former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called on Jones to apologise.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus claimed he was "seriously triggered by women in power".

At around 5.30pm on Thursday, Jones released a statement about his on-air comments, claiming a "wilful misinterpretation" of what he had said.

“I note some concern about my comment this morning re New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern and her remarks and preaching about climate change. Of course what I meant to say was that Scott Morrison should tell Ms Ardern to 'put a sock in it'," he said.

While stopping short of an apology he said he does not wish any harm to Ardern.

Jones has often found himself at the centre of controversy for his at-times incendiary comments.

In 2012, he was slammed for two separate comments about then-PM Julia Gillard.

In the first, he claimed she and then-Greens leader Bob Brown should be "shoved in a chaff bag" and thrown into the sea, again during a rant on climate policy; in the second, he claimed Gillard's father had "died of shame".

In 2007, the Australian Communications and Media Authority ruled that 2GB had breached media rules by broadcasting comments "likely to encourage violence or brutality and to vilify people of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity" before the 2005 Cronulla riots.